Santa Pola is a 31,745 population coastal town located in the Valencian Community. It is currently one of the most important fishing ports in the Spanish Mediterranean. Based on a 58.6 km2 surface, its main natural resources are the Natural Park of Las Salinas, the Sierra and Cape and beaches in an 11 km length. Santa Pola is one of eight municipalities that form the Alicante coastline Costa Blanca
Main environmental challenges faced by the city
According to the 2009 General Plan, green areas in Santa Pola can be divided into three categories: beaches, outdoor recreation areas with sports facilities and public parks. There is a lack of parks or squares in the municipality, as they represent only 7.04% of the total area of green spaces. The availability of green space per individual is 4.21 m2. This data indicates the lack of urban green space available for leisure and recreation. Furthermore, Santa Pola is a city highly exposed to the impacts of climate change, and in particular heatwaves.
NBS implemented or planned
In 2015, a territorial ordination instrument of supra-municipal scope (PATIVEL) was presented with the objective of preserving and protecting the coast of the Valencian Community.
In Santa Pola, both the Natural Park of Las Salinas and Cabo de Santa Pola are areas of considerable ecological, cultural, agricultural, scenic and territorial value, the preservation of which is a priority for the municipality.
The City Plan of Santa Pola is committed to safeguard the protected coastal front of the city, protect natural resources, use anthropogenic resources coherently so that the natural environment does is preserved, develop a bicycle lane on the entire coastal front of the municipality of Santa Pola, strengthen environmental awareness in general among citizens and manage responsibly the parks and gardens in the city.
The ponds from the old lagoon system of the Santa Pola Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) have been kept as lagoons, fulfilling the functions of: a reservoir of regenerated water from the purification of wastewater (100% of the residual water from Santa Pola) for later use in irrigation, in its entirety (100% of the water that reaches the treatment plant). This basically is the regulation system for the distribution of irrigation water in a traditional system, the head reservoir.
Its use is also intended as a recharge of nearby natural wetlands (Las Salinas and Clot de Galvany Natural Park, both recognized in the wetland system of southern Alicante. At present, a place of passage and even nesting of birds has been generated (spontaneously) in these lagoons, since a permanent sheet of water is available (regenerated from residual water).
As projects: Use water in more areas (already presented in an integral water cycle project), recharge nearby wetlands (already recognized by protection figures) to ensure permanent sheets of water, generate islands for the nesting of certain threatened species in the lagoons themselves, and visitor spaces / pedagogical observatories to show the integral water cycle, what is the end of the recovery of the residual water